Taipei Trip

This past weekend my friend Katy and I took a little trip up to Taipei. Taipei is the capital of Taiwan, a huge city, and one of the few places in Taiwan most people who don't live in Taiwan have heard of so I decided I absolutely had to visit before I leave Taiwan. It is one of the coolest places I’ve ever been. I don’t know what it is about Taipei, but everything was so amazing. Everyone was so nice and helpful. If you even looked a little bit lost, someone was right there asking if they could help you. It was so easy and cheap to get from place to place. Katy and I went there with very few goals that were almost all food related: bagels, burritos, American style breakfast, and going to a club to meet up with a friend from another city. We accomplished everything. The food was delicious and the MRT is my favorite thing ever. Every MRT station was beautiful. There was amazing art everywhere that turned an otherwise dreary underground station into something kind of magical. I’m going to start this post with all the pictures I took in MRT stations because that was one of my favorite things about Taipei.

To get to Taipei, we took a bus. I love the buses here because they are so comfortable. It was about a two and a half hour ride and cost us NT$270 (around $9 US). We were dropped off at the bus station, which is also the main MRT station. Immediately, I saw a bagel place called N.Y. Bagels Cafe and had a mini freak out because I love bagels and cream cheese and I’ve missed them so much. I got a beautiful, perfect, delicious bagel and a coffee and my life was complete. Here’s my bagel.

Next, we took the MRT to Xinyi Anhe district where our hostel was located. We walked around and explored a little bit until we could check in at 3pm. We stayed at JV’s Hostel and it was such a cool place, back in a little alley above a tattoo shop. It was very clean and we met some interesting people. We stayed one night and it cost NT$450 ($15 US). The lady who checked us in to the hostel was so sweet and funny. She kept telling Katy and I we sounded “so American and just like the people on TV”. Here are some pictures of the area we stayed in.

This might be my favorite picture I've ever taken

After we checked in at the hostel, we were on a mission to get a burrito. A few of our friends had told us about this place called Juanita’s in the Zhongxiao Dunhau district. IT WAS INCREDIBLE. It was just like a Chipotle or Qdoba and the food was amazing. I got a burrito and I was so so so so happy.

120% satisfied with life in this picture

We spent the whole first day just walking around and checking out anything that looked cool. Here is just a whole mess of random pictures from the day.

Taipei 101 during the day

and Taipei 101 at night

We met a really cool cat

Katy

Sparkly sidewalks

That night, we headed to a club to meet up with one of our friends that happened to be in Taipei as well. The club was called Myst and it was so cool. There were three different big rooms that all played different music, and a huge outside deck. We had so much fun dancing and talking with new people. We danced with a man in a Hello Kitty costume, and that was definitely something else. We hung out at the club until around 4 or 5am, and then we were starving. We wandered around the city with a group of new friends we had made and found another N.Y. Bagels Cafe! So I got another bagel, and Katy got her American style breakfast. Complete satisfaction. We finally made it back to our hostel and slept for a few hours.

scary Hello Kitty

bagel #2

The next day (Sunday), we checked out of our hostel and we were feeling pretty miserable. Lack of sleep and our pretty serious hangovers made it a rough day. After lots of water and coffee, we decided we wanted to go find this art area. So we took the MRT and went to the Zhongzheng district. We started following a random group of people and ended up finding the Huashan 1914 Creative Park. It was a really neat area. There was a food truck there that was so great. I got a grilled cheese, and it was just what I needed. In the park, there were a lot of booths selling homemade goods, and there was also some beer festival going on. We walked around and found two really neat art shows. The first one was called Vibrant Vision and it had a lot of things made of cotton and wood. The second was called The Real Counterfeit, and I really liked this one. A lot of it just looked like random piles of junk. You were suppose to touch and interact with the art so that you could discover things are not always what they seem. Items that you thought should be soft and light, like a pair of jeans or a deflating pool toy, were really rock solid and stiff. It was really cool. Here are a bunch of pictures of the area and the art exhibits.

Huashan 1914 Creative Park

I love this picture

hard as a rock dinosaur inflatable

After walking around a little more, it started to rain. We were tired with sore feet and we decided to go back to the Taipei Main Station/bus station. We had a few hours to kill so we sat around, rested, and ate. Under the station there were two malls, so we explored them and did a little shopping. We ended the day with a twenty minute back massage by blind people for NT$200 (about $6.60 US). Blind people giving massages seems to be a big thing here because I got one in Kenting a few weeks ago as well.

We finally got on the bus back home. They played the movie Pitch Perfect on the bus, and it was the perfect end to a wonderful weekend.